ECAC Tournament: Redemption and Revenge Sought in Denver

What may have seemed like a unique conference tournament last season has become old hat by this year, at least that's the feeling you get when you talk to the four ECAC coaches heading west to Denver this week to participate in the conference tournament. With the geographic spread of the league, the tournament's host site is established by last year's conference champs, so with the Pioneers taking the crown in 2011, the 2012 tourney heads back to the base of the Rocky Mountains.

“We know we've got the same four teams back in a little different rotation...There's nobody who's intimidated by coming to Denver anymore, especially not Loyola,” Denver coach Bill Tierney said, referring to No. 1-seed Loyola's performance in Denver the past two seasons, including a 12-9 defeat of the Pioneers on April 14. Fairfield has done similarly well, beating Denver 8-6 the week prior to Loyola's win, and playing well in last year's ECAC Championship. “Ohio State doesn't get intimidated by anything I don't think. Those days are gone.....I think everybody's pretty good with travel now, they're OK with the facility.”

“From the travel side of it, yes, we know what the hotel ride is like to the game field; we know how long it's going to take us to get from the airport to the hotel,” said Loyola Charley Toomey about the now familiar trappings of Denver. “First time for us being the one seed, so we'll see how our guys handle that, but we know it's going to be a terrific tournament with four very capable teams coming out of this with the AQ. We're looking for a dogfight.”

“It's tournament time, and this is why kids come to play lacrosse at these great schools,” Tierney said. “We're all going to lay it out on the table. We're all going to play hard; we're all going to coach hard, and let the chips fall where they may.”

No. 3 Fairfield vs. No. 2 Ohio State (8 p.m. MT/10 p.m. ET)

Following a frustrating loss, it's rare for a team to get a crack at revenge so quickly after the initial contest, but that will be Fairfield's task against Ohio State. The Stags dropped an 8-3 decision at home to the Buckeyes fewer than four days prior to their tournament showdown.

“Coming off a loss, I don't think there's anything greater that gives us more motivation to go on the field against this Ohio State team,” said Fairfield senior goalie Charlie Cipriano.

The short turn around and familiarity of the squads means preparation for this game might be a little different than most. Instead of nuanced scouting reports or implementing new plays or systems, the teams will look to make a few modest tweaks, but generally stick to what worked all season.

“We have our hands full with a very, very tough Ohio State team, with a little bit of a unique situation we just saw a couple of days ago,” said Fairfield coach Andy Copelan. “I'm not sure a whole lot changes, just some minor tweaks to the scouting report. They know us; we know them. It's going to be a competitive game.”

Ohio State coach Nick Myers echoed those thoughts, saying that “at this point in the season, making it about us,” is the goal. Self improvement takes precedent over discerning an edge to exploit.

“We felt like we were improving each week, knowing that we had to play our best lacrosse come conference time at the end of the year,” Myers said.

It's been an up-and-down season for the Buckeyes. After starting the year with three-straight wins, including an upset of then ECAC favorite Denver, the team went on to lose five-straight, six of seven overall, leaving them a long shot for the postseason. But three-straight wins to bookend the regular season has them controlling their own postseason fate.

Myers noted how both the offense and defense have sured up as the season has gone along. Known commodity Logan Schuss (37G, 17A) remains the team's leading scorer, but the Buckeyes downed the Stags with contributions from eight different scorers.

“Logan's a big part of who we are, there's not doubt about it,” Myers said, but “those guys around him are improving.”

Fairfield has followed a different path to this game. The Stags rattled off seven-straight wins to start the season, cultivating an 11-3 record overall, but their final contest against Ohio State saw them muster only three goals, their lowest output of the season.

“They're sound defensively. They're starting three seniors at close who are playing with a lot of confidence right now in front of a goalie that I thought had a very strong day against us Saturday,” Copelan said of the Buckeyes. “We have an opportunity to right the ship, but you also understand Ohio State is coming in with a whole lot of confidence, and it's going to be a very good game.”

If the Stags can advance back to the championship game, Cipriano isn't too worried about playing another game on short rest in the thin air.

“Earlier this season we had a stretch where we played like seven games in three weeks,” Cipriano said, “so a couple games in a short span isn't much of a problem.”

No. 4 Denver vs. No. 1 Loyola (5 p.m. MT/7 p.m. ET)

Two teams coming off probably their biggest games of the year would normally lead to a letdown the next time out, but that shouldn't be the case as Denver looks for redemption against Loyola in Wednesday's nightcap.

“All of our goals are still ahead of us,” said Loyola junior Scott Ratliff, arguably the best LSM in the conference. “Everything we have left to accomplish takes precedent over looking back over a game that we maybe could have had. So I think it's important to learn from the mistakes and correct mistakes, but not to dwell on it or over think it at all.”

The Greyhounds fantastic undefeated run ended against local-rival Johns Hopkins in overtime in front of more than 6,000 fans in Baltimore.

“Having the experience to play in front of a crowd like that, and then having the experience of the ECAC Tournament and hopefully the NCAA Tournament, I think that will help us grow as a team and help us improve throughout the rest of the season,” said attackman Eric Lusby (34G, 10A). “Everyone is going to be focused now because we've had our first loss, and it's a learning experience.”

Team is “looking forward to the opportunity of coming back and getting on to the field in two days, and that's how they've been all year,” Toomey said. “I fully expect that we'll learn from it, we'll move on, and hopefully get out to Denver and play our best lacrosse of the year.”

Denver finds itself in quite a different situation. The Pioneers seemed on the outside looking in on the playoff picture just a few weeks ago after suffering back-to-back losses to Loyola and Fairfield. But on Friday, Denver got its biggest win of the season convincingly defeating Duke 15-9 at the Whitman's ® Sampler ® Mile High Classic. Now firmly in the bubble discussion, the ECAC tournament affords the Pioneers a chance to beef up their resume and even capture an AQ.

“The Loyola game gives us another opportunity to play for that honor of playing in the NCAA Tournament,” said head coach Bill Tierney, “and then of course if we were to be fortunate enough to win that game, to try to win the ECAC championship for the third year in a row would be our goal.”

“I think Denver has changed a little bit since when we played them in the past,” said Lusby. “Denver has kind of woken up a little bit, but they've been a good team all season. They've lost a bunch of close games, so I think it will be a good contest out there.”

The Duke game showed several promising signs for the Pioneers. They held a prolific offense to single-digit goals. Offensive catalyst Mark Matthews exploded for five goals and two dishes. Perhaps most promisingly, freshman Ryan LaPlante, who was thrown into cage during Denver's OT loss to Cornell when Jamie Faus went down with a foot injury, shined under the Mile High lights. LaPlante stood tall for 16 stops against the Blue Devils, tying a career high.

“By the time you get to a tournament like this, you're not a freshman anymore,” Tierney said of his keeper. “He's played in seven games at this point. He's faced Loyola and knows what a challenge their shooters are to face. They beauty of Ryan LaPlante is he's a pretty cool customer for a young guy. He doesn't get too frazzled.”

But for all the speculation about the trending fortunes of either school, both Tierney and Toomey think this game will be much more about the familiarity and match ups amongst the Pioneers and Greyhounds, than about any hangover from the previous weekend.

“Whatever their result of their game against Hopkins or our game against Duke, really I don't think comes into play in this one; I think it's just a matter of these two teams showing up.” Tierney said. “We know each other very well; it's not like we have to start all over with your scouting report.

“...Neither the Greyhounds nor the Pioneers will be thinking about what happened last weekend.”

Watch the semifinal rounds live on Denver's athletic's website. Watch the ECAC championship live at 4 p.m. MT/6 p.m. ET Friday on ESPNU.